Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, January 17, 1996

Watch for the blood to flow this week at the San Francisco district attorney's office.

Word is, newly elected DA Terence Hallinan is about to fire 15 to 20 veteran prosecutors.

Hallinan wouldn't comment yesterday, but sources say the former liberal county supervisor- turned-DA has been huddling with his top lieutenants during the past couple of days to make the final cuts.

"It's like a morgue over there," is how one law enforcement type described the mood on the third floor of the Hall of Justice. "Everyone is looking over their shoulder and wondering who's headed for the guillotine."

"It was never like this in the past. Top staffers would leave by their own steam. We've never had wholesale firings," the source said.

Elementary school in Oakland opens time capsule from 1927San Francisco Chronicle

Brides of March walk through San FranciscoSan Francisco Chronicle

WildCare rescues Western scrub jay from rodent glue trapWildCare

The Regulars: The CarpenterJessica Christian

Hallinan campaigned on the "reform" idea of cutting costs by replacing highly paid lawyers with cheaper -- and hopefully more eager -- young blood.

Not that Hallinan is going to completely revamp the office -- certainly not the longtime custom of putting your political flacks on the payroll.

As he prepares to fire the prosecutors, Hallinan has hired his former City Hall and campaign aide, Ross Mirkarimi, to one of those well-paying slots as a DA investigator.

"He's going to be a great investigator," said Hallinan.

MONKEY BUSINESS: Hmmm, what some folks think is beauty . . .

Just as the wrecking ball was about to swing, preservationists have moved to block the demolition of one of Oakland's most notorious eyesores -- the massive, empty, crumbling, nine-story Montgomery Ward building on troubled East 14th Street.

De La Fuente has spent the better part of two years negotiating with Montgomery Ward to rid the Fruitvale neighborhood of the towering blight.

The fight with Ward was bitter, to say the least. At one point, local churches were talking about a boycott unless the old building came down. To the locals, the building, which has been

empty for 16 years, had become a symbol of Oakland's decay.

De La Fuente said he had "an understanding" with the preservationists. They'd stay out of the way if he helped them fight for other landmarks around town.

But Bill Coburn, the Alliance board president, said yesterday that his group had a change of heart -- chiefly because the city didn't look hard enough at finding a way to save the graffiti-scarred building.

It's not that Oakland hasn't tried. It tried to interest developers in renovating the building, but to no avail.

One reason: The remodeling price tag was anywhere from $12 million to $15 million.

"If you gave it a high-quality paint job, repaired the windows and removed some of the unattractive additions, you would have a handsome, early 20th century industrial building," says architect Coburn.

And you thought this kind of stuff happened only in San Francisco.

LOYALTY TEST: A few weeks ago, when Mayor-elect Willie Brown was mulling over his first appointment to the Board of Supervisors, Carole Migden offered up this advice: "You have a free pass on this one, so appoint someone that will shine and someone who will be loyal."

Yaki represents the latest generation of the Burton-Brown machine, that liberal-labor combine of politicos that includes Brown, Pelosi, Assemblyman John Burton, plus Supervisors Kevin Shelley and Sue Bierman.

Even U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer started out as an aide in the Burton combine.

If there's one thing the Burton clan knows about, it's loyalty. By appointing Yaki, Brown proves his loyalty to Pelosi and gives Yaki a chance to prove his loyalty to Brown.

TOILET TROUBLE: Those high-tech, handicapped-accessible, self-cleaning public toilets that former San Francisco Mayor Frank Jordan pushed so hard to get onto the streets by election day are in trouble again.

"Horrible" and "outrageous" are the words Brown used yesterday to describe the city's multimillion contract with JCDecaux Co.

Brown thinks that the city is getting the short end of the stick on the 90 advertisement kiosks and newspaper stands that Decaux was allowed to erect downtown to pay for the toilets.

Under the contract, Decaux is only supposed to put up 4.5 kiosks per toilet. Right now, the firm has nine kiosks per toilet.

Brown has ordered the city attorney to look into the agreement. And he isn't the only one grousing.

Much to the chagrin of city officials, a number of the kiosks spin.

The Department of Public Works has asked Decaux to put the brakes on the spinning signs. Decaux's reply: "No." The company contends that the contract includes permission to spin.

And now, Gannett Outdoor, a competitor of Decaux's, is coming in with a survey showing that about 25 of the Decaux newsstands don't meet American Disabilities Act requirements.

Decaux is trying to take it all in stride. It says more toilets are on the way and it's working to make the newsstands conform to the act's requirements. "Plus, it should be pointed out that the toilets have been used 73,000 times," said company rep Jean Francois Decaux.

Critics have one point right on the mark. Jordan wanted so desperately to have the toilets up and running for his re-election that there was no stopping the program -- no matter what the problems.

If you have any doubts, just go down to Fisherman's Wharf. The Port of San Francisco was so eager to get the kiosks in that it allowed Decaux to put two of them up in the street. . . . And get this, the one at Beach and Hyde is sitting in the middle of a red zone!

I WOULDN'T BE A MEMBER OF ANY CLUB THAT WOULD HAVE ME: Local politico Larry Bush, Brown's newest pick for the San Francisco Ethics Commission, has taken his first ethical action.

He's declined the appointment on the grounds that joining the commission would be unethical.

During his stint as owner of the CityReport newsletter, Bush -- a.k.a. the Cobra Woman -- bit into the ethics of the Jordan administration at every turn.

These days, the former mayoral speechwriter works for his old boss, Art Agnos, at HUD. And therein lies the rub.

Bush said it would be a conflict of interest to join the commission since HUD provides funding to the city.